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Between 1989 and 1995, 96 consecutive infants affected by isolated ventricular septal defect (VSD) were submitted for primary correction at a median age of 4 months. Of the 96, 60 (group I) underwent surgery on the base of a 2-dimensional Doppler echocardiographic (DD echo) test alone. The preoperative DD echo anatomic definition of the type of VSD was confirmed at surgery in all 60 patients without false-positive results in terms of additional cardiac anomalies. There were 2 false-negatives: in 2 patients an associated cardiac anomaly was not detected by DD echo and required a second surgical procedure after postoperative cardiac catheterization. During the same period 36 infants (group II) underwent surgical closure of isolated VSD on the basis of cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography in addition to DD echo. The retrospective comparison between the 2 groups revealed no significant difference in terms of sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic tools, early and late mortality after surgical correction, postoperative hospital stay, and need for late cardiac catheterization and surgery. We conclude that after an accurate selection, most of the infants with uncomplicated VSD can safely undergo primary repair on the basis of DD echo alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]